Early Reviewers

Seventeen years have passed since Charles Fontaine last set foot in the beloved Ardennes forests of his youth. Too many restless memories… too many ghosts.

When he finally returns to sell the family’s ancestral domain, he confronts not only his own unfulfilled dreams, but also traces of a twelfth-century legend that still haunt the woods around the Fontaine property, and suggest a shadowy link to the modern family.

Clues lead Charles to a parchment documenting the curious tale of a village seeress, whose music enchanted a nobleman preparing for crusade. With the help of a famous medievalist and an enigmatic woman from his youth, he draws ever closer to the truth of this tale and its stunning historical revelation. Suddenly the words of his cherished uncle and mentor spark to life:

Sometimes you can actually feel the past breathing…even after nine centuries.

An enthralling historical what-if from the author of The Universe in 3/4 Time: A Novel of Old Europe, shortlisted for the 2023 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize.